Thursday, May 19, 2011

What would be a good term to describe the scientific study of psi powers in a slightly retro sci-fi setting where those who possess such powers are called "espers?" I like the term "parapsychology," but, alas, it's been hijacked by those who study a wide variety of occult phenomena, so I need something different and preferably Campbellian (as in John W.).

Well Parapsychology is the study of things outside of normal psychology but if ESP become an understood and repeatable demonstrable aspect of the sentient condition then it would no longer be "outside" so parapsychology would not be an appropriate term. How about something simple like "Psicology", "Psiology", or "Psiography". Books written about the subject could be "Psiographica" or perhaps definitive information could be found in a "Psiclopedia".

If it were me, I'd use "Psychoenergetics" to refer to the branch of science.

Talysman's suggestion of "Psychotronics" is too good to pass over though. I'd use that as more of a controversial philosophy/practice full of mental exercises, rituals, and/or bio-cyber enhancements, that supposedly hone the skills of budding adepts and awaken dormant abilities within mundane individuals.

How about NEUROLOGISTS? These are the serious folks who for decades have been recording EEGs (Electro Encephalograms), interpreting them, and are now studying how to influence the brain with various waves (such as electromagnetic) to influence moods and eventualy transmit imagers. They HAVE achieved a noricxeable clinical effect. Not quite SciFi, but here it be.

I'll throw in a vote for the first name offered above, by Joshua: psychophysics.

It sounds good, and it captures what you're talking about: the interaction of the mind with things outside of the mind (i.e. things in the physical world, including other people).

In real life, of course, psychophysics is concerned with only the physical sensory inputs to the brain and how they are subjectively perceived by the mind (e.g., why we perceive multiple different mixtures of light wavelengths as being the same colour). But in your fantasy setting, the field would be expanded to address physical effects of paranormal psychological phenomena. Even telepathy and other mind-to-mind effects would fall under this umbrella insofar as they are limited by physical distance, etc.

Of course, researchers of the non-physical aspects of mind-to-mind contact would probably have their own related field, "interpsychology". But these guys would be considered flaky pseudo-scientific weirdos by real, hard-core psychophysicists.

(Interpsychiatry would be a medical field interested in the therapeutic applications of interpsychic phenomena).

Seconds for going with the -urgy suffix. Chirurgeons are awesome and have that great sense of being official while still not quite understanding what it is they're doing. Neurourgy. Psychurgy. Menturgy. Urgy!

Meta-physics, words change their meaning and context all the time, it could be that person who coined the term for psionics used this one because he liked it and it stuck.

ExtraSensory Neurology, ESN for short.

PSIlogy - who says in the future they will have hokey names for things too. Future Anthropologists may yet ponder what why we eating Mac and whether the Obesity crisis was caused by too many people eating more and more people.

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